Resident Rena Meyers-Dahlkamp, opens the Post Office door for her children to check their mail, on Thursday August 30, 2012, in Canyon, Calif. The town of Canyon is fighting to save its Post Office from closure, which doubles as a community center. It's the latest Bay Area city to take on the United States Postal Service.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Resident Rena Meyers-Dahlkamp, opens the Post Office door for her...

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20-year-resident Jonathan Goodwin takes care business at the town Post Office, on Thursday August 30, 2012, in Canyon, Calif. The town of Canyon is fighting to save its Post Office from closure, which doubles as a community center.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

20-year-resident Jonathan Goodwin takes care business at the town...

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Eliana Murdock, 4-years-old, watches over Scrappy as her grandfather Rocky Murdock conducts Post Office business with Carla Williams, a Postmaster Relief employee, on Thursday August 30, 2012, in Canyon, Calif.

(02-06) 13:21 PST CANYON -- Residents in small Bay Area towns where the post office is a community centerpiece reacted with a mixture of anger and resignation Wednesday to news that the U.S. Postal Service intends to end Saturday delivery of first-class mail.

In Canyon, a hamlet of 200 people in the East Bay hills between Oakland and Moraga, the Postal Service's announcement that it will halt first-class delivery in August was just the latest blow to efforts to save the local post office. Canyon has had a post office since 1852, but the Postal Service has already said it intends to cut the office's hours and eliminate the postmaster position.

"We want to make it a place that's attractive, that's a tourist destination for local people," said Jonathan Goodwin, 51, a clock repairman who has led the effort to save the post office. "Bicycles and visitors come through on Saturday. Not being able to have Saturday transactions, it just weakens the whole business plan we have in mind."

Other small towns with a central post office were more resigned about the announcement.

"Their hours have been reduced over the years, and like with everything, people adjust," said Debbie Sanchez, 59, who owns Coffee Nine in the Santa Cruz Mountains community of Ben Lomond. "So I won't get any bills on Saturday, that's how I look at that. In a small town, if the coffee shop is closed, that's a big deal."